itudes
were frozen over. But, in the latter case, how did the tropical animals
_subsist_ and _exist?_ The Polar bear, the Arctic fox, and the musk ox
would do well enough; but how was the armadillo, the cougar, the lama,
and even the bison to fare?

This question is far more difficult to solve than that of the migration
of the aborigines, for they could cross in various ways; but quadrupeds
could not come in boats. Birds could fly from island to island, snakes
and dogs might swim, but how came the sloth and the other quadrupeds of
the torrid zone? Who can assert that there has not been a powerful
disruptive geological action in the now peaceable Pacific? It is replete
with volcanic powers.

_15th_. Chabowawa, an Indian chief, a Chippewa, called to get some slips
of the currant-bush from my garden, to take to his village. Although the
buds were too near the point of expansion, in the open and sunny parts
of the garden, some slips were found near the fences more backward, and
he was thus supplied.

_25th_. I have long deliberated what I should do with my materials,
denoting a kind of oral literature among the Chippewas and other tribes,
in the shape of legends and wild tales of the imagination. The
narrations themselves are often so incongruous, grotesque, and
fragmentary, as to require some hand better than mine, to put them in
shape. And yet, I feel that nearly all their value, as indices of Indian
imagination, must depend on preserving their original form. Some little
time since, I wrote to Washington Irving on the subject. In a response
of this date, he observes:--

"The little I have seen of our Indian tribes has awakened an earnest
anxiety to know more concerning them, and, if possible, to embody some
of their fast-fading characteristics and traditions in our popular
literature. My own personal opportunities of observing them must,
necessarily, be few and casual; but I would gladly avail myself of any
information derived from others who have been enabled to mingle among
them, and capacitated to perceive and appreciate their habits, customs,
and moral qualities. I know of no one to whom I would look with more
confidence, in these respects, than to yourself; and, I assure you, I
should receive as high and unexpected favors any communication of the
kind you suggest, that would aid me in furnishing biographies, tales or
sketches, illustrative of Indian life, Indian character, and Indian
mythology and superstitions.